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The sociolinguistic functions of codeswitching between Standard Arabic and Dialectal Arabic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2011

Abdulkafi Albirini
Abdulkafi Albirini
Affiliation:
Utah State University, Department of Languages, Philosophy and Speech Communication, 0720 Old Main, Logan, UT 84322, USAa.albirini@aggiemail.usu.edu
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Abstract

This study examines the social functions of codeswitching (CS) between Standard Arabic (SA) and Dialectal Arabic (DA). The data came from thirty-five audio and video recordings in the domains of religious lectures, political debates, and soccer commentaries. The findings suggest that speakers create a functional division between the two varieties by designating issues of importance, complexity, and seriousness to SA, the High code, and aligning less important, less serious, and accessible topics with DA, the Low code. The CS patterns therefore reproduce the unequal social values and distribution of SA and DA in the Arabic sociolinguistic landscape and simultaneously call for a reconceptualization of the notion of diglossia as presented in Ferguson's (1959) work. Other functions of CS as a marker of speakers' attitudes and as an index of pan-Arab or Muslim identities are discussed. (Arabic, bidialectal codeswitching, High/Low dichotomy, functional diglossia, identity, language attitudes)*

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Articles
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Language in Society , Volume 40 , Issue 5 , November 2011 , pp. 537 - 562
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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